One of just a couple of outings in the directors chair for regular stuntman Thomas Dewier (perhaps his genius was spent?), Death by Dialogue is quite an experience, that is, if you happen to groove to off the wall and frequently imbecilic late 80's horror cheese. It operates vaguely on a supernatural slasher template, but mostly it's an excuse to wallow in the clichés of the era, given carte blanche by a plot (evil screenplay) that allows for literally anything. For a while, things are just about perfect here. The obligatory opening slaying is amusing, wondrously atrocious cheese-tunage over the credits, then its just a hop, skip and jump into a totally rocking "teens capering around" montage. Volleyball! Running around! All set to upbeat synths, its heavenly stuff. Then we got musings on death before the mayhem kicks in, and it sure is a hoot. Budget and lack of imagination mean that events keep to pretty regular template, but that still means boobs, bikers, and a guy with a big sword wigging out Kurgan style among other things... It could have been truly swell, but direction tends to stutter, with captivating oddities separated by stretches of banality, there's little rhyme or reason to anything and acting is enthusiastic at best, cruddy at worst. Speaking of acting, for star power we have Ken Sagoes, of A Nightmare On Elm Street parts 4 and 5 fame, and his character is called Lenny. This amused me for some reason, but I'm not sure why. Perhaps he should have been called Carl? Anyways, he does as well as you might expect, while a little more talent is provided by delightful stunner Laura Albert, who also gives us nudity. Theodore Lehman puts on a likable expository show as Uncle I've, whilst varying degrees of non ability are provided by the likes of Lenny Delducca and Jude Gerard (nope, me neither) while inept sound recording does more damage than the acting by rendering bits and bobs of conversation inaudible. Music works nicely though, tailored to fit each scene there are the aforementioned synths, eerie tones, a gnarly metal tune and a splash of ominous drums. The film takes a nicely wild approach and is often interesting but peters out in the final twenty minutes with lack of budget and talent dooming the ambitious goings on and a fairly weak climax. At least it isn't too bad and by this point the film has built up a fair amount of goodwill with its crazy shenanigans. I would have liked more gore (don't worry, there is a little) and consistency here, but broadly this is a good fun piece of trash, 6/10 from me.

Only in the 1980's, those gloriously dim-witted 1980's, it was possible for an over-enthusiast young writer/director to present a concept about a murderous horror movie screenplay and actually find the necessary financial means to make the film! "Death by Dialogue" is bottom-of-the-barrel 80's guff, complete with insufferable lead characters, zero tension building and a fairly high number of WTF-moments. The film is an attempt to amalgamate a typical slasher plot with an edge of supernaturalism, but the result is beyond retarded. The first half hour is still okay, albeit full of clichéd situations and hilariously inept 80's characteristics. The opening sequence, for example, is quite funny when a caretaker mistakes a hideous demon for his employer and yells at her: "Why don't you fire me!". The demon then literally sets him on fire, ha ha! Then there's a the exemplary credits sequence, depicting five stupid twenty-something losers driving up to a remote holiday destination in their convertible, guided by an atrociously cheesy 80's pop song. There's the hero and his girlfriend, the wannabe James Dean cool dude and the token black guy (Ken Sagoes from "Nightmare on Elm Street 3 & 4"). After the obligatory 'we-are-having-fun-playing-kids-games' montage, the dumb posse stumbles upon an ancient horror movie script that is possessed with the evil spirit of a murdered journalist. Yes, that's right! The script summons demons on motorcycles and heavy metal rock bands and actually causes people to die in various idiotic ways. "Death by Dialogue" is a really stupid film with tacky special effects and pathetic demon masks. The fog machines are working overtime and the barn love-making sequence has to be seen in order to be believed. The couple has steamy & passionate sex, although the girl never removes her panties, while the barn fills up with demonic forces until the girl literally blows out of her socks.

I'm writing this min-review just to counteract the one I saw at the top of the list, which wasn't accurate or helpful. Death By Dialogue is best described as being in a group of films like The Pit, The Carrier and Hard Rock Zombies that are all badly made, badly scripted, badly acted... and absolutely AWESOME!!!! Because they are either so unintentionally bad or intentionally surreally unique that no description is necessary. Is this a bad movie? Hell, ya. Are there moments in this movie where I wondered what bleep was happening and laughed my butt off... yes. If you like those kind of movies this one has something for you.

This spirited little low-budget horror film deserves more than it's reputation. I had the fortune of picking this film up (believe it or not) on DVD and needless to say I wasn't expecting much from a film called Death by Dialogue, with a possessed script and an 80's alt-rock band starring Ken Sagoes, who was one of my favorite characters from NOES. The film does have some ultra cheesy moments but it's decently crazy and gory at times. Plus...nudity. I'd say if you find it on television or in the old releases at your local videostore, be a good-little slasherhound and pick it up and give it a view. As stupid as it is it's worth at least that much.